From G. Schnell: Systeme in der Automatisierungs-und Prozesstechnik (Systems in Automation and Process Technology), Vieweg: Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, 5th edition 2003, Chapter 1.3.6 and from the page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration, version of Aug. 9, 2006, 8:41 p.m., of the German edition of the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, arbitration is known as a method by which resources, e.g., access times to a bus, are assigned to a plurality of bus users, while avoiding conflicts, particularly conflicts in accessing s bus. Thus, the arbitration is a method for bus mediation. Example embodiments of the present invention relate to such an arbitration. In this context, an arbitration method is, in particular, a procedure established prior to the development of a possible conflict, especially during the planning and design of the bus system, based on which the bus users are able to ascertain and resolve a conflict which has arisen, this resolution involving at least the determination as to which user has a higher priority, and thus a higher precedence relative to the other participant users. For instance, the access indicated involves a transmission of data.
Conflict avoidance is necessary when working with bus systems having random, thus, non-deterministic bus-access methods. Such systems are multi-master systems, thus systems in which a plurality of bus users are allowed to access a bus independently. Example embodiments of the present invention deal especially with bus systems that use a decentralized bus mediation, thus, arbitration. Ethernet and CAN are included in such bus systems. The bus mediation is accomplished with the aid of Carrier Sense Multiple Access or CSMA.
Carrier Sense Multiple Access or CSMA is a bus mediation method by which bus users in a decentralized network are able to attain an access right to the bus. CSMA Collision Detection or CSMA/CD denotes a method in which occurring collisions are recognized and in which a repetition of the collision is avoided. CSMA Collision Avoidance or CSMA/CA is a method for collision avoidance especially in radio-based bus networks.
On the page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controller_Area_Network in the version of Oct. 9, 2006, 7:59 a.m., of the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, German edition, the Controller Area Network or CAN is described as a serial bus system in which the communications users avoid collisions when accessing the bus, using bit arbitration. In CAN bus systems, binary data are transmitted using amplitude shift keying, also known as on-off keying or OOK method, which renders a non-contact, inductive transmission difficult.
On the page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexRay in the version of Oct. 14, 2006, 11:07 p.m., of the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, German edition, FlexRay is described as a serial, deterministic and fault-tolerant bus system for use in the automobile, comparable to TTP/C or EC-Net.
From Michael Reisner: Ethernet. Das Grundlagenbuch (Ethernet, the Book of Basics), Franzis' Publishing House (2002), Ethernet is known as a data-network technology which permits the exchange of data between devices associated in a local network.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,445, an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing or OFDM method is described as a multi-carrier modulation method for data transmission, in which a plurality of sub-signal carriers are amplitude-modulated simultaneously. These sub-signal carriers are often frequency bands in a jointly utilized medium, e.g., air or a data line. Due to the use of a plurality of sub-signal carriers, several bits are able to be transmitted per symbol. The symbol duration is considerably longer compared to single-carrier methods. As a rule, the individual bits are realized in binary fashion by the presence (logical one) or the non-presence (logical zero) of a sinusoidal excitation with a frequency, belonging to the sub-signal carrier, over the entire symbol duration.
German Published Patent Application No. 196 35 813 describes a digital transmission method, in which the communication channels, known there as carriers, assigned in the respective multi-carrier modulation method, are subdivided into subchannels known there as subblocks.
German Patent Document No. 44 46 779 and PCT International Published Patent Application No. WO 92/17929 describe methods for contactless energy transmission, in which there is an inductively weak coupling.
From the page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanal_%28Informationstheorie%29, version of Aug. 30, 2006, 3:54 p.m., of the German edition of the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, a device, i.e., an apparatus or a carrier that is suitable for transmitting data over spatial or temporal distance is known as channel, in terms of information theory, also as communication channel.
U.K. Patent Document No. 2 230 166 describes a method for allocating resources, in which a parallel arbitration method is only initiated when an access collision is recognized. Prior to transmitting useful data via a data bus BS, the users in each case put their address in the form of a single binary-coded number on a separate arbitration bus AB, the permissible addresses having a fixed number of ones. An access collision is recognized exactly when the number of ones on the arbitration bus AB is greater than this fixed number.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,843 describes a bus system having multi-master communication and having a parallel arbitration of bus requests, in which each of the bus nodes has an identification number and in which relative priorities are ascertained in the arbitration from the identification number of the requesting bus node and the identification number of that bus node which last had bus access.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0225188 describes a method for the wireless and contactless transport of energy and data and a corresponding device, the device including a stator and a rotor, each of which is provided with windings whereby data and energy are inductively transmittable.
PCT International Published Patent Application No. WO 2007/010083 describes a device for data transmission, in which at least diagnostic signals are transmitted between a motor and a frequency converter which controls the motor, the motor and the frequency converter being connected by a motor cable, at whose two ends in each case a high-frequency data-transmission device is connected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,913 describes a communication system having differential phase shift keying, in which the data to be transmitted with a low user transmission rate are multiplied by a pseudo-random code, transmitted redundantly on a transmission channel with increased transmission rate, and integrated at the receiver.